Q How well do those Google autonomous vehicles work in the snow and ice with little visual indications of the roads, lanes and curbs? What about in heavy rain when cameras and sensors are blocked? Who is responsible when they end up killing someone, the manufacturer or the person not driving it? Sounds like the manufacturer will be on the hook. Therefore, they will never see the light of day.

Vic Elias

San Jose

A Ah, to the contrary. A growing number of experts think we could see these cars on our roads in five years. On Friday the Department of Motor Vehicles is holding a workshop to discuss what safety regulations must be in place by 2015. The workshop will go from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the auditorium at the Department of General Services, 707 Third St. in West Sacramento.

There are many issues to resolve. Here are some.

Q The good: Heading north on Highway 101 in San Jose, I saw a self-driving car in the carpool lane, signaling to move into the next lane, with a fair bit of traffic. It found an opening of reasonable size and did a great job of working with the traffic flow. No unseemly moves, no one had to brake or make adjustments. Impressive. It would be great if all drivers could manage that. I certainly see a lot of carpoolers wait to the last minute to try and dash across three or more lanes to exit. One hit me a few years ago.

The bad: How many people do you need in a driverless car to be in the carpool lane? And will folks be complaining about road boulders where they can’t signal their displeasure with a human form of communication? What does the car do if it gets rear-ended? Does it mind motorcycles zipping by in the virtual lane between two real lanes? Perhaps you could answer these and other intriguing questions about this new concept.

Dave Buck

Morgan Hill

A I can’t answer them yet — but in time I hope to. Until then, please share your experiences with these cars now being tested in the Bay Area.

Q Mr. Roadshow, I was recently driving down 101 and witnessed the Google self-driving car going 75 mph (the flow of traffic). Who gets the speeding ticket when these eventually have no driver?

Chris Fenton

Morgan Hill

A Hmmm. Good question.

Q One night I merged onto I-280 near Palo Alto and found myself next to a Google driverless car, when it unexpectedly changed lanes away from me, putting an empty lane between us.

I had a moment of annoyance because there was no signal, but then I had a more troublesome thought. Do you think Google driverless cars have an algorithm for reading minds? Because I swear, right before it moved over a lane, I found myself wondering just how close I could get to a driverless car before it would be forced to take evasive maneuvers.

Barbara Metzler

A About 12 inches, according to numerous auto reviews.

Q Google’s autonomous vehicles may be the wave of the future. One thing you may be sure of, if they are properly programmed, they won’t have the infuriating human defects we suffer from daily.

John Joss

A Such as?

Q They won’t be absurd speeders.

They will keep to the right except to pass.

They won’t tailgate.

They won’t leave immense gaps that delay traffic behind them.

They won’t use cellphones to talk or text or be distracted by applying makeup or fixing their hair.

They won’t have an automated middle-finger salute when someone does something spectacularly stupid or innocent. Maybe driving might become slightly more civilized, eh?